Lesson Launch: The Wow Factor
Much like a movie’s opening scene, the launch of a lesson should grab everybody’s attention, spark curiosity, and get students asking questions.
Deconstructing Construction Projects
Last spring I was standing in my fifth-grade classroom, mid-project, rearranging student groups when I realized we had a problem. My students were building scale models of dog houses and cat condos that they had designed—and would ultimately build—to donate to a pet-adoption event later that spring.
Classroom Design for Busy People: Make a “Tribute Wall”!
As a new teacher, I faced the same dilemma every fall: What to put on the walls of my classroom?
Can’t I Just Let the Kids Decide What to Make?
Q: It seems restrictive to tell every kid to make the same kind of product when we’re doing a project. How should I decide what parts of the project to be flexible on and which are non-negotiable?
What if kids just copy the model?
The answer to this question is, literally and precisely, “I’d like to see them try.”
How (and Why) to Start a Project with a “Model Critique”
“We critique and discuss what makes the work powerful: what makes a piece of creative writing compelling and exciting; what makes a scientific or historical research project significant and stirring; what makes a novel mathematical solution so breathtaking.”
Self-Assessment Strategies for Students
How can assessment practices be designed to best support student learning? In school, the term “assessment” is often shorthand for “grades”—or, perhaps, tests, quizzes, rubrics, and similar evaluative tools. However, thinking of “assessment” as interchangeable with “test” or “grade” limits the potential for assessment practices to lead to meaningful and deeper learning.
Reading List: What is this thing we call PBL?
Sometimes the simplest questions lead to the most complexity…
Your Classroom Isn’t An Island
My fourth-grade classroom was covered in cardboard boxes. The entire back wall was piled high with donated boxes. The tables were covered in glue and paint cups sat in the sink. As I began to clean up some paint splatters, I smiled to myself as I thought about how I ended up in this situation.
Schools as Equitable Communities of Inquiry
We wrote this chapter several years ago, in response to a request from the Sitra Foundation in Finland that we envision the school of the future. The chapter is dated in some respects, but apart from minimal updates and revisions for clarity, it appears here as written.